


Sometimes It's Better

by yeah_okay_cool



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Long-Term Relationship(s), M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-11-26
Packaged: 2018-02-27 02:50:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2676206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeah_okay_cool/pseuds/yeah_okay_cool
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story about Jean and Marco with a long-time relationship in high school and dealing with all the struggles along the way. However sometimes enough is enough, and sometimes it's better to move on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sometimes It's Better

Marco  
I sat outside Jean’s house on a cold, foggy Friday morning with my ancient pick-up truck struggling to keep the heat on and run at the same time. Jean came stomping out of his white paneled, double-wide home with his usual portable coffee thermos and his backpack slung over one shoulder. He wore an unzipped grey jacket, white t-shirt, dark jeans, and beat up canvas shoes

Jean piled into my truck and kicked some McDonald’s wrappers out of the way, he leaned over the seat and gave me a scruffy peck on the cheek. “Morning,” he mumbled and took another drink of coffee. He smelled like Listerine and sweet cologne.

  
“Morning. How was work last night? Sorry I fell asleep before I could text you when you got off,” I apologized, although this scenario was normal, since Jean worked late at the local Wal-Mart to keep up with bills, part of the reason why I drove him to school.

  
“It’s cool. Work was work,” Jean shrugged. His undercut hair was more unkempt than normal. I turned the key in the ignition and pulled out of Jean’s driveway.

  
I tried to focus on driving on the way to school, since the roads were foggy and traffic was bad. Jean did not seem to mind, and dozed off in the passenger seat.

  
“Hey, Jean?” I asked, trying to rouse him. Jean bolted his head up from the seat.

  
“Hmm? Yeah?”

  
“Do you want to hang out tonight? I don’t feel like we’ve seen much of each other this week with work and school and all…” I trailed off. I did not want to make Jean feel like it was his fault that we had not had time together.

  
“I don’t think I can. I’m really tired and I’ve got schoolwork to catch up on,” Jean said flatly. It seemed like a pretty common excuse lately, but I couldn’t argue with it. He probably was tired and had schoolwork.

  
“Oh,” I said, my voice sounding more disappointed than I meant for it to.

  
“I’m sorry. I love you,” Jean added. He smiled weakly at me and went back to his coffee.

  
“Love you too,” I muttered back.

  
I pulled into the school parking lot and parked in my unspoken designated spot. Jean and I stayed in the car for a few minutes before deciding to go in.

  
“Hey,” Jean said. He put his hand on my neck and pulled me in for a kiss. His lips were soft because he basically ate Carmex for a snack and his coffee had washed away the taste of his toothpaste. He was bitter and soft at the same time, just like always. I couldn’t help but feel my stomach drop into a two-mile ravine and the hairs on my neck stand up a bit.

  
After almost a whole year (in one week) of dating, Jean still made me feel this way, and I loved him so damn much.

  
Jean and I clambered out of his truck and onto the wet pavement, making our way up to the school steps. Jean stopped before we reached the top, leaned over, and asked me, “Who are those kids in front of us?”

 

Our school was a pretty small school, with about 500 hundred students, so seeing someone we hadn’t seen before was unusual.

  
However, I happened to know who these new people were. “That’s Eren in the black tee, and his sister, Mikasa, in the red scarf. Just transferred here from some school up north,” I explained.

  
“Mikasa,” Jean scoffed, “Why can’t people get some normal ass names around here. We’ve got fuckin’ Ymir, Christa, Bertholdt for God’s sake,” Jean stammered on.

  
“Well, Jean isn’t exactly normal either,” I added.

  
“Fuck off, Marco Polo, it’s French,” Jean teased and hit Marco’s arm playfully.

  
I laughed and stopped before we walked into the door of the school. “Love you,” I said casually as I opened the door.

  
“Love you too,” Jean said back in the same casual tone. I didn’t mind that at this point we said I love you casually, Jean knew that I meant it as much as I possibly could every time I said it, and I knew that Jean meant it too.

  
Or so, after this week, I hoped.

  
I knew Jean had a tendency to get bored with girls before he came out as bisexual. He would drop them and pick them up about every three weeks. The same went for a few boys after he came out, but then Jean met me, and I had hoped that he would not drop me in a month, because I really liked him.

  
Obviously he decided he liked me, because our one year anniversary was in one week.

  
Jean and I did not have many classes together, except for lunch. The day passed by pretty slowly, and all of my classes buzzed in anticipation of the weekend. I would be excited as well if I were them, but I was still upset that Jean had said no to my plans this evening. I tried to remind myself that he is busy and tired, but I still felt at unease.

  
“Hey,” Jean waved as he walked toward me. I was standing in line toward the back for lunch. “I got a B on my AP calculus test.”

  
“That’s good,” I said, and gave a weak smile. “It’s pizza day today,” I added.

  
The new kid, Eren, walked past us and met up with his sister, who was toward the front of the line.

  
“He can’t just cut like that,” Jean said irritably.

  
“But you do all the time? You just did,” I argued.

 

“That’s different. I’ve been going to school here for longer than a week,” Jean retorted. “Plus, that kid gets on my nerves. He’s super cocky.”

  
“He seems all right to me,” I shrugged. Eren seemed like a normal kid to me. “Also, he doesn’t seem to have made very many friends yet, except Armin, so we should talk to him.” I always hated making people feel left out, and I knew it must be hard for him to transfer schools in the middle of the new school year.

  
Jean and I shuffled through the line and got our trays filed with frozen pizza, carrot sticks, and applesauce. When it came time to find our table, I took Jean over to the spot where Eren, Mikasa, and Armin were sitting.

  
“Ugh,” Jean groaned as I nudged him in their direction. I set my tray down on the plastic table and Jean took his seat next to mine.

  
Armin was at the table working on homework, Mikasa was picking at a chef salad, and Eren was eating three burgers and a Dr. Pepper very quickly.

  
“Hey, Armin,” I smiled and waved.

  
Armin, just noticing me and Jean, lifted up his head from his books and smiled back, “Hey, Marco! Have you met Mikasa and Eren? They just transferred here.”

  
“In the middle of the new semester? That’s gotta be rough,” I said sympathetically.

  
“Yeah,” Mikasa mumbled.

  
Eren leaned back in his chair, “It’s no biggie. We’ve moved plenty of times.” Jean rolled his eyes as Eren put his arms behind his head.

  
I shot Jean a small look and smiled again, “So how did you know Armin?” It was directed toward Eren.

  
“Armin and I went to elementary school together, but I moved when we went to middle school,” Eren explained. “So, Jean, where did you meet Marco?”

  
Jean was taken back for a second, “You can’t just ask someone about their personal life like that! Did you just assume that Marco and I are gay?”

  
“What!? I was asking where you met and became friends. You’re gay?” Eren said, shocked.

  
Jean looked extremely embarrassed and slouched back in his seat, his cheeks turning bright red. I decided to take over at that point. “Yeah Jean and I are gay. Well, actually, Jean’s bisexual, but we’ll be dating for a year next week. We’re pretty open about it.”

  
Or at least I am.

  
It hurt a little bit to see Jean react that way when people thought he was gay. It made me feel almost as if he’s ashamed of me. I knew that couldn’t be the case though, since Jean loved me.  
I didn’t care much for the rest of the day, until Jean met up with me after dismissal bell so I could drive him home.

  
“I changed my mind. I want to come over and hang out. I feel like I’ve been kind of an ass lately. Also, my dad is home, and I don’t feel like seeing him right now,” Jean said and we climbed into my truck.

  
“Really? That’s great. My mom is going to be home, but my dad’s out of town this weekend.” I explained.

  
I started my truck and pulled of out the parking lot. Jean swiped through his IPhone the whole way home, which wasn’t far since my house was closer to the school than Jean’s.

  
We pulled into my cracked concrete driveway next to an old, brick house. It matched the other old town houses that were lined down the street. It was very small, but I had lived there all my life.

  
“Hey, Mom,” I waved as Jean and I walked through the side door and into the kitchen.

  
“Hi sweetie,” My mom said back. She was focused on some bills at the dining table with an uneaten sandwich next to her. Looked up over her reading glasses for a second and saw Jean, “Hey Jean. Haven’t seen you around for a while.”

  
“Yeah. Work’s got me pretty loaded down. Today’s my only day off this weekend,” Jean said and rubbed the back of his neck.

  
“Well, it’s nice to see you,” she smiled. The fine lines showed around her eyes a little bit.

  
Jean smiled and we walked down the hall into my tiny bedroom. It had just enough room to walk into and out of, with a small desk, dresser, and twin-sized bed. I had put the 20 inch flat screen I got for Christmas over the foot of my bed so that I could watch TV and play video games.

  
Jean knew the routine at my house. He took off his shoes, plopped onto my soft, grey sheets, turned on the TV and started looking for a good movie to watch.

  
“It’s almost like you live here,” I teased as I took off my own shoes and sat down next to him.

  
“I wish. You’ve got like the cutest house in the neighborhood. Complete with the cutest residents,” Jean booped my nose and laid down on his back.

  
“Psh, whatever,” I followed his suit, and laid backwards myself, so that we were shoulder to shoulder with each other. “I missed you,” I whispered.

  
“I missed you too,” Jean whispered back. He gave me a quick kiss, followed by a second, longer one. I rolled over to face Jean and wrapped my arm around his hip as he wrapped his arm behind my neck and kissed me harder.

  
Jean grabbed a fistful of hair and I kissed him back with the same intensity. He bit my lip and slipped his tongue in for a second, inhaling deeply. He kissed me so hard that our teeth clashed together for a moment, but it didn’t stop any of the building momentum.

  
I broke away and moved to Jean’s neck and started kissing him softly. I heard him let out a small sigh as I gave him a small bite on his earlobe and let my tongue trail down from the back of his ear to the top of his collarbone.

  
“God you’re hot,” Jean said a little more breathlessly than I thought he meant to. I smiled, and feeling that he was done kissing for now, leaned my head on his chest and focused on the movie. I tried to do the thing where our breaths synced with each other. I listened as Jean’s breaths got slower and deeper, and eventually I knew that he had fallen asleep.

  
Jean laid there with his mouth open just a little bit, and his hand draped over his stomach. I wiggled out from his cuddle and decided to let him sleep, so I went into our small kitchen and got a glass of Mountain Dew.

  
“Hey, sweetie. Where’s Jean?” My mom was on our leather couch flipping through channels.

  
“He’s asleep,” I answered. “He’s pretty tired with work and stuff.”

  
“I’ve noticed he hasn’t been coming over as often. Are you guys okay?” Mom asked.

  
She and I were pretty close, and she knew I would tell her if there was anything wrong, but I didn’t feel like talking about the details of my relationship right now so all I said was, “It’s fine. We’re just both stressed with school and all.”

  
“I understand,” My mom nodded and I walked back into my room with my glass of soda. Jean was on the bed rubbing his eyes.

  
“Hmmm. How long was I asleep?” He asked.

 

“Just a few minutes,” I sat down on the bed and put my glass down.

  
“I have to leave in a bit. My dad wants me home early,” Jean said, checking his phone. “Reiner says he’s having a party tomorrow. Do you want to go?”

  
Reiner’s parties usually had alcohol, so I was hesitant to answer.

  
“I promise I won’t drink,” Jean persuaded. Jean used to have a problem with drinking. He stopped when it started to affect his grades and he worried he wouldn’t be able to get into his dream college. That was all before Jean moved here and we met, though, and Jean never wanted to go into great detail with me about it.

  
“Okay. I’ll go,” I gave in. Jean smiled and kissed me real quick. I didn’t want him to leave yet, so I pulled him in and kissed him harder.

  
I slipped my hand underneath his t-shirt and put it on his bare chest. Jean smiled and leaned back so that we were both laying down on the bed again. I wrapped my thighs around him and pulled him over so that he was leaning over the top of me. He pulled off his shirt in a swift motion and I did the same with mine.

  
So here we were, again, half naked and kissing away our problems.

  
Jean broke away, “Marco, I really have to go.”

  
“Okay,” I said, a bit pouty, and slipped my shirt back on. Jean did the same, grabbed his backpack and headed out to my car, waving goodbye to my mom on the way out.

 

It was dark when I pulled back into my driveway. Jean had given me a kiss goodnight, reminded me about the party tomorrow when he got off work, and went inside.

  
I turned off my truck and rubbed my temples. My head was pounding, and I felt exhausted. I dragged myself inside the kitchen, rummaged through the cabinet, and found some Tylenol.

  
“Did Jean go home?” Mom asked, getting a glass from the dishwasher and filling it with water.

  
I swallowed my pills dry and answered, “Yeah. His dad wanted him home early tonight since he works early tomorrow morning.” I leaned on the counter and rubbed my head again, “I’m not feeling so well, Mom. I think I’m just going to go lay down.”

  
“Okay dear. Feel better,” Mom wrapped her arm around my shoulder and kissed me on the cheek, but only barely, since I was a good head taller than her.

  
I went down to my room, and stripped off my jeans, too tired to change out of my t-shirt and boxers. I crawled into my bed and tossed and turned until I fell into a deep sleep.

 

 

I woke up in a cold sweat, my body shivering and aching all over, and my head pounding.

  
“Great,” I moaned. I rolled over to read my clock and saw that it was already eleven. I sat myself up with great difficulty, and shuffled to the bathroom.

  
I looked the in the drawer for the thermometer and stuck it under my tongue. My head was starting to pound again and my nose was runny.

  
My phone buzzed on the sink counter. It was Jean. He was probably on break.

  
Jean: Party later? Pick me up at my house?

  
Me: Sorry. I can’t tonight. I’m not feeling well.

  
The thermometer beeped and I checked the temperature- 100.03. I sighed and sent a picture to Jean so he knew I was really sick and not trying to back out of the party.

  
Jean: That sucks. Feel better 

  
Me: Thanks

  
Mom knocked on the bathroom door, “Marco? Are you okay?”

  
“Yeah, I’m running a slight fever. I just going to sleep it off,” I opened the door and answered. My voice was gravelly from my sore throat.

  
“Okay. I’ll come in and check on you in a bit. Your dad will be home later,” she said.

  
“Alright,” I walked into my room and piled all of my blankets over me. I was freezing. My whole body ached.

  
I drifted into a restless nap, but was woken up by my dad creaking my bedroom door open.

  
“Hey there. Heard you’re sick,” My dad walked in slowly and sat on the foot of my bed. He was still wearing his shirt and tie from work.

  
“Yeah. I’ll be fine. How was your trip?” I asked, leaning up in my bed.

  
“Eh. It was okay,” my dad shrugged. He had freckles all over like me, with the same light brown eyes and dark hair. “How’s Jean?”

  
“He’s fine. He’s working today,” I answered. My dad was the last to know about Jean, but somehow the most accepting of it.

  
“Does that kid ever take a break?” He shook his head. “I’ll you get some rest. See ya later.” Dad got up and walked out of the room.

  
I turned on the TV and fell in and out of sleep all day, with Mom coming in occasionally with water and medicine.

 

  
It was late at night, and I had been asleep for a while. I was feeling a lot better, so I assumed that my fever had broken in my sleep.

  
I rolled over on my side and check the clock, it was almost 2 in the morning. I rubbed my eyes and drank some water from the bottle on my nightstand.

  
Vrrrrmm vrrrrrm

  
My phone buzzed on the nightstand. It was Jean. I had forgotten all about the party he was at tonight.

  
“Hello?” I answered, my voice croaked.

  
“Marco? It’s Annie. I need you to come get Jean.”


End file.
